Causes of Hot Flashes and Night Sweats in People with Cancer and Survivors
Hot flashes and night sweats are common in people with cancer and survivors.
A hot flash is a sudden warm feeling over your face, neck, and chest that may cause you to sweat and your face to turn red. Sweating is your body's way of lowering body temperature by causing heat loss through your skin. Hot flashes combined with sweats that happen while sleeping are often called night sweats or hot flushes. Hot flashes and night sweats are common in people receiving cancer treatment. Some people continue to have hot flashes and night sweats after cancer treatment.
In women and men, hot flashes and night sweats may be caused by surgery, radiation therapy, and taking certain medications.
Women
Menopause occurs when the ovaries stop making estrogen. Hot flashes and night sweats are common symptoms of menopause. Early menopause is a condition in which the ovaries stop making estrogen at a younger age than usual. Early menopause can occur when both ovaries are removed by surgery, such as a bilateral oophorectomy to lessen the chance cancer will occur or as part of a hysterectomy to treat cancer.
Other treatments that can cause hot flashes and night sweats include:
- Chemotherapy.
- Hormone therapy, such as antiestrogens (tamoxifen) and aromatase inhibitors.
- Radiation therapy.
- Other drug therapy, such as opioids, tricyclic antidepressants, and steroids.
In people with breast cancer, severe hot flashes have been linked with:
- Sleeping problems.
- A lot of pain.
- Poor mental health.
In premenopausal breast cancer survivors, hot flashes and night sweats have also been linked with depression.
Men
In men, the testes produce testosterone. Surgery to remove one or both testicles for the treatment of prostate cancer can trigger a set of symptoms that include hot flashes and night sweats. Hormone therapy with gonadotropin-releasing hormone or estrogen also causes these symptoms in men.
Other drug therapy, such as opioids, tricyclic antidepressants, and steroids, may also cause hot flashes and night sweats.
